When my girls were in public school I used to know their reading level. The teacher would give me a letter. But now that I homeschool, I have no idea how to go about assessing that. So, this was very imformative. Will look into that A to Z running record site.
Great! It helps just looking at what is the "norm." Although our homeschool kids are not on standardized tests, it can help guide me in knowing how to prioritize my reading time.
13 year homeschooler here who might be adding other kids this year, this was awesome to learn where these kids I don't know as well as my own are in their reading journey. thank you!
I love this topic! I have a first grader I am homeschooling & this was spot on! I use the Good & the beautiful's reading assessments & she has already moved up 4 levels since we started school on Sept. 1. She really disliked reading at first & it was a real struggle. Now that she has more confidence in herself its not as hard. It's def not her favorite but she''s willing now.
This is a great video and very helpful. I have twin first graders that I’m teaching to read and I really would like to be more formal for their teaching, reading levels and keeping track. Thanks so much for the links.
I think I've been in the homeschool world too long because I definitely don't know very much about reading levels or what reading ability is tied into particular grades, but I completely agree, from experience, Grades 1-3 are definitely the years where there is SO much progress in reading ability.
Exactly. Once my children are reading fluently at levels where they are independent with chapter books, I just make sure they have time to read and then discuss with me. I occasionally check in with them to hear how their reading aloud sounds.
I don’t really use GR now since homeschooling. I feel like I assess them daily. We used ABEKA and Horizon Readers. Once they got to third grade they just took off. We used the I can read series. When going into the library I didn’t look at levels. If it interested my kids I took it. If it was too hard, we did it together. Talking through the hard words. It it was too easy. Great... confidence. We always had the readers to fall back on.
We look at the inside pages of the book to guide and assess a "just right book." But, parents have differing personalities and some parents find confidence in systems. :)
Yes. It’s so important to figure out your kiddos reading level. It’s hard to know where to instruct them and where to let them fly when there isn’t a baseline to move on from. Thanks for these helpful tips! Perfect, from a former teacher. When my little picks her own books, I have My little pick a page, read it, retell it. If she has to skip too many words we try a different boo.
Yes. That's similar to us except that I usually grab some out of convenience. Because they read aloud to me (which is a form of assessment) I usually can gauge what is too hard or easy for them.
We do too. However, there are some nuggets in this video that can really help out some parents without overwhelming them or their children. My audience is mixed, so some parent do have children in school.
Great video. Exactly the information I've been looking for. We also like to use subtitles when watching tv to add a little more reading time. My child can read and decode words pretty well but I don't know how to test her comprehension. So this will be very helpful. She just turned six (last month) and can read just about any word, in the books and subtitles (without assistance), but she will give up when trying to spell the simplest words. Do you have any tips that can help? She will not try if she is not sure it's correct.
Thank you! I'm not sure what the simplest words are the you are referring to. However, if it's basic 3 letter words or 4 letter words, this course would help on the sounding out aspect.....theparentteacherbridge.thinkific.com/courses/a-busy-mom-s-guide-to-teaching-your-child-to-read I like to have my children write in a journal. Then, we correct spellings. Sometimes we don't get to correct spellings. Either way, they have word exposure and gradually get better. When my children were learning to read, we used letter magnets on the fridge. I go through this in detail in the course I linked. That built their phonological awareness. They were building or spelling words early on with this method, even if they didn't understand more complex spelling rules. If your child does not want to write, you can write it out for them to begin with and back off over time. We liked building words on a magnetic surface because it seemed more game-like. All About Spelling does something similar in their program which I also recommend. I hope this helps! I appreciate your comment.
It seems to me that some children understand things perfectly well, yet cannot explain them verbally. For instance, with oral communication, my adult nephew with Down's Syndrome has VERY limited verbal abilities (less than 50 words), yet he clearly understands and can act upon very complicated verbal instruction. I wonder if its a mistake to assume that a child isn't understanding their reading simply because they don't know how to reply to comprehension questions in the expected way.
My daughter's reading chapter books (and understands what she is reading) at home but the school put her on level G. She's in grade 3. I don't get it. Just messaged the teacher for a talk. She's been bummed out that she gets baby books at school and they wouldn't move her up to bigger books.
She can read anything she wants to at home and on the weekends. You did the right thing by reaching out and asking. The first thought that comes to mind on why it might not be matching up is fluency or accuracy (if indeed she is comprehending well as you say). Have her read a book out loud that she has never read. Listen for how smoothly she is reading the phrases and sentences (paying attention to the punctuation and any dialogue). Also listen and be meticulous watching for if she skips a word (even a small word), substitutes a word (even tiny words), or repeats a word. This is accuracy. She might comprehend and get the gist of a story and be able to answer the big ideas, but still struggle with that part of reading. Here is a link that might help you understand. www.readinga-z.com/helpful-tools/about-running-records/marking-a-running-record/. You should ask to see her running record or ask the teacher to demonstrate the process to you. In the end, a reading level is just a tool. We homeschoolers tend not to get "hung up" on the idea. But, in school settings, with multiple rewards and peer pressure, it can be BIG DEAL. We don't want our children "behind in reading," but we recognize enjoying reading, reading aloud well, and comprehending what we read are the most important things. ;)
This says around a J, but I've taught second graders who are entering several levels lower. They can "get by" but need to keep up the pace by practicing on weekends and summer breaks to "catch up" eventually.
Thank you. I have a 6 year old entering first this year in person and he did virtual school for kindergarten. He exited Kindergarten as a “J”. He initially tested as an “M” but they said he still liked pictures and some themes for younger so they placed him lower. He had to do his own reading group individually with the teacher most of kindergarten. Hoping he can be with kids this year in group. The teacher said he could read a Level Z but there are a lot of concepts per level that go into it.
@@justamemphisgirl Yes, I found that my oldest child who read quite well was not always ready for that level of material since it sometimes contained lots of words per page. For him, it was a focus and stamina issue. His decoding and comprehension was great! Since he wasn't behind, we just worked on interesting books from the library to build his stamina more and more. As we transitioned to chapter books, we'd buddy read them and then watch the movie or cartoon that went along as a celebration at the end. :). That was about age 8-9. He is now 12 and entering 6th and can read large books on his own because he wants to. That means the world to me! Next year, in his homeschool program, he will have more required reading. That is what I was working toward.
@@TheParentTeacherBridge oh that is great to know. Mine will sit and read word heavy books for long periods of time if it’s something that he loves. He’s reading the Pokémon Handbook right now. He loves non fiction like reading Kids Encyclopedias and Science texts. He prefers them over non fiction. So his teacher tried to work with him more on fiction because she knew he’d read non fiction on his own. Just a funny thing. The other day I had a Chocolate Satin Pie in the refrigerator. He said, why are we eating devil pie? I said, what?! He said, it says Chocolate Satan Pie. I said that’s Sat-in not Sat-an 😀
Hello! I'm 11½ ( 6th grade) and I've took a test with no results yet. Could you tell me on how I could find my reading level earlier? It would be very helpful, thank you. =)
Hi! There are different systems of rating a reading level. Can you tell me exactly why you need to know? Is it for a certain exam, for curiosity or for intervention ?
In the description you would click "how to conduct a running record" but someone would need to do it for you. You're probably a higher level than what is typically tested or you wouldn't write so proficiently on here.
@@TheParentTeacherBridge Oh, thank you! 😊 I just wanted to know if I'm on track or not. ( Because of COVID. ) So, does good spelling mean you're good at reading? If so, thank you for telling me.
@@kysscum111 People can read well and NOT be great spellers. Good spellers are generally good readers. There are some exceptions, of course when some children read aloud beautifully and aren't able to retell anything they read (their comprehension stinks). If you were in 5th grade at the time of the pandemic and you were "on level" reading and able to read and understand chapter books, then you are in a good place still likely. Those children who were just learning to read at that time suffered more. Your age group would be more likely to lose out on math learning in my honest opinion. Did you continue to read books just for fun during the pandemic and shutdown? If so, you were still learning and get practice and expanding your vocabulary. You can continue to do so by reading both fiction and nonfiction books as your science and social studies textbooks are nonfiction (mostly nonfiction is what we need to read as adults to take care of business). It is good to have a balance of both. www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/ten-important-research-findings/
Hello! Here are the 5 Quick Tips: www.TheParentTeacherBridge.com/readinghelp It takes patience to help your child grow, but it also takes consistency! Best wishes!
Get a FREE GUIDE "5 Quick Tips to Immediately Help Your Struggling Reader" here: www.TheParentTeacherBridge.com/readinghelp
When my girls were in public school I used to know their reading level. The teacher would give me a letter. But now that I homeschool, I have no idea how to go about assessing that. So, this was very imformative. Will look into that A to Z running record site.
Great! It helps just looking at what is the "norm." Although our homeschool kids are not on standardized tests, it can help guide me in knowing how to prioritize my reading time.
13 year homeschooler here who might be adding other kids this year, this was awesome to learn where these kids I don't know as well as my own are in their reading journey. thank you!
Thanks, Tammy! Reach out to Rebecca@TheParentTeacherBridge.com for any questions. I'm always looking for more content!
This is such a thorough review on Guided Reading. GR makes it so easy. Love these links.
Glad you like them!
Thank you
I love this topic! I have a first grader I am homeschooling & this was spot on! I use the Good & the beautiful's reading assessments & she has already moved up 4 levels since we started school on Sept. 1. She really disliked reading at first & it was a real struggle. Now that she has more confidence in herself its not as hard. It's def not her favorite but she''s willing now.
I'm so glad to hear those success stories! It makes all the difference.
This is such a great resource as a homeschooling mom. Thanks for this video.
You are so welcome!
This is a great video and very helpful. I have twin first graders that I’m teaching to read and I really would like to be more formal for their teaching, reading levels and keeping track. Thanks so much for the links.
Glad it was helpful!
I think I've been in the homeschool world too long because I definitely don't know very much about reading levels or what reading ability is tied into particular grades, but I completely agree, from experience, Grades 1-3 are definitely the years where there is SO much progress in reading ability.
Exactly. Once my children are reading fluently at levels where they are independent with chapter books, I just make sure they have time to read and then discuss with me. I occasionally check in with them to hear how their reading aloud sounds.
I don’t really use GR now since homeschooling. I feel like I assess them daily. We used ABEKA and Horizon Readers. Once they got to third grade they just took off. We used the I can read series. When going into the library I didn’t look at levels. If it interested my kids I took it. If it was too hard, we did it together. Talking through the hard words. It it was too easy. Great... confidence. We always had the readers to fall back on.
We look at the inside pages of the book to guide and assess a "just right book." But, parents have differing personalities and some parents find confidence in systems. :)
Yes. It’s so important to figure out your kiddos reading level. It’s hard to know where to instruct them and where to let them fly when there isn’t a baseline to move on from. Thanks for these helpful tips! Perfect, from a former teacher. When my little picks her own books, I have My little pick a page, read it, retell it. If she has to skip too many words we try a different boo.
Yes. That's similar to us except that I usually grab some out of convenience. Because they read aloud to me (which is a form of assessment) I usually can gauge what is too hard or easy for them.
In our homeschool, we read what we want regardless of level. I did use this when I taught public school.
We do too. However, there are some nuggets in this video that can really help out some parents without overwhelming them or their children. My audience is mixed, so some parent do have children in school.
A friend asked if she could borrow a book that was level 7.....I had no idea what that meant! This was very helpful!
Wonderful!
Good to know the teachers perspective
Thank you.
How else can I help?
Excellent review. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching!
Great video. Exactly the information I've been looking for. We also like to use subtitles when watching tv to add a little more reading time. My child can read and decode words pretty well but I don't know how to test her comprehension. So this will be very helpful. She just turned six (last month) and can read just about any word, in the books and subtitles (without assistance), but she will give up when trying to spell the simplest words. Do you have any tips that can help? She will not try if she is not sure it's correct.
Thank you! I'm not sure what the simplest words are the you are referring to. However, if it's basic 3 letter words or 4 letter words, this course would help on the sounding out aspect.....theparentteacherbridge.thinkific.com/courses/a-busy-mom-s-guide-to-teaching-your-child-to-read I like to have my children write in a journal. Then, we correct spellings. Sometimes we don't get to correct spellings. Either way, they have word exposure and gradually get better. When my children were learning to read, we used letter magnets on the fridge. I go through this in detail in the course I linked. That built their phonological awareness. They were building or spelling words early on with this method, even if they didn't understand more complex spelling rules. If your child does not want to write, you can write it out for them to begin with and back off over time. We liked building words on a magnetic surface because it seemed more game-like. All About Spelling does something similar in their program which I also recommend. I hope this helps! I appreciate your comment.
It seems to me that some children understand things perfectly well, yet cannot explain them verbally. For instance, with oral communication, my adult nephew with Down's Syndrome has VERY limited verbal abilities (less than 50 words), yet he clearly understands and can act upon very complicated verbal instruction. I wonder if its a mistake to assume that a child isn't understanding their reading simply because they don't know how to reply to comprehension questions in the expected way.
Great resource thanks!
No problem!
My daughter's reading chapter books (and understands what she is reading) at home but the school put her on level G. She's in grade 3. I don't get it. Just messaged the teacher for a talk. She's been bummed out that she gets baby books at school and they wouldn't move her up to bigger books.
She can read anything she wants to at home and on the weekends. You did the right thing by reaching out and asking. The first thought that comes to mind on why it might not be matching up is fluency or accuracy (if indeed she is comprehending well as you say). Have her read a book out loud that she has never read. Listen for how smoothly she is reading the phrases and sentences (paying attention to the punctuation and any dialogue). Also listen and be meticulous watching for if she skips a word (even a small word), substitutes a word (even tiny words), or repeats a word. This is accuracy. She might comprehend and get the gist of a story and be able to answer the big ideas, but still struggle with that part of reading. Here is a link that might help you understand. www.readinga-z.com/helpful-tools/about-running-records/marking-a-running-record/. You should ask to see her running record or ask the teacher to demonstrate the process to you. In the end, a reading level is just a tool. We homeschoolers tend not to get "hung up" on the idea. But, in school settings, with multiple rewards and peer pressure, it can be BIG DEAL. We don't want our children "behind in reading," but we recognize enjoying reading, reading aloud well, and comprehending what we read are the most important things. ;)
Thank you, this is excellent.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Please let me know what other videos/content might be helpful. Also, check out my blog at www.theparentteacherbridge.com!
I need it's this video
New on there's
What is the average exiting first grade F&P reading level?
www.fountasandpinnell.com/shared/images/textlevelgradient.jpg
This says around a J, but I've taught second graders who are entering several levels lower. They can "get by" but need to keep up the pace by practicing on weekends and summer breaks to "catch up" eventually.
Thank you. I have a 6 year old entering first this year in person and he did virtual school for kindergarten. He exited Kindergarten as a “J”. He initially tested as an “M” but they said he still liked pictures and some themes for younger so they placed him lower. He had to do his own reading group individually with the teacher most of kindergarten. Hoping he can be with kids this year in group. The teacher said he could read a Level Z but there are a lot of concepts per level that go into it.
@@justamemphisgirl Yes, I found that my oldest child who read quite well was not always ready for that level of material since it sometimes contained lots of words per page. For him, it was a focus and stamina issue. His decoding and comprehension was great! Since he wasn't behind, we just worked on interesting books from the library to build his stamina more and more. As we transitioned to chapter books, we'd buddy read them and then watch the movie or cartoon that went along as a celebration at the end. :). That was about age 8-9. He is now 12 and entering 6th and can read large books on his own because he wants to. That means the world to me! Next year, in his homeschool program, he will have more required reading. That is what I was working toward.
@@TheParentTeacherBridge oh that is great to know. Mine will sit and read word heavy books for long periods of time if it’s something that he loves. He’s reading the Pokémon Handbook right now. He loves non fiction like reading Kids Encyclopedias and Science texts. He prefers them over non fiction. So his teacher tried to work with him more on fiction because she knew he’d read non fiction on his own. Just a funny thing. The other day I had a Chocolate Satin Pie in the refrigerator. He said, why are we eating devil pie? I said, what?! He said, it says Chocolate Satan Pie. I said that’s Sat-in not Sat-an 😀
Can you help my child with his owl's?
Sure, Mr. Weasley. ;)
Keep dewin wut your dewin girlfriend! Cuz it's helping the masses
What is level I for first grader
How do I know what level I am?
Hello! I'm 11½ ( 6th grade) and I've took a test with no results yet. Could you tell me on how I could find my reading level earlier? It would be very helpful, thank you. =)
Hi! There are different systems of rating a reading level. Can you tell me exactly why you need to know? Is it for a certain exam, for curiosity or for intervention ?
In the description you would click "how to conduct a running record" but someone would need to do it for you. You're probably a higher level than what is typically tested or you wouldn't write so proficiently on here.
@@TheParentTeacherBridge certain exam, and curiosity.
@@TheParentTeacherBridge Oh, thank you! 😊 I just wanted to know if I'm on track or not. ( Because of COVID. ) So, does good spelling mean you're good at reading? If so, thank you for telling me.
@@kysscum111 People can read well and NOT be great spellers. Good spellers are generally good readers. There are some exceptions, of course when some children read aloud beautifully and aren't able to retell anything they read (their comprehension stinks). If you were in 5th grade at the time of the pandemic and you were "on level" reading and able to read and understand chapter books, then you are in a good place still likely. Those children who were just learning to read at that time suffered more. Your age group would be more likely to lose out on math learning in my honest opinion. Did you continue to read books just for fun during the pandemic and shutdown? If so, you were still learning and get practice and expanding your vocabulary. You can continue to do so by reading both fiction and nonfiction books as your science and social studies textbooks are nonfiction (mostly nonfiction is what we need to read as adults to take care of business). It is good to have a balance of both.
www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/ten-important-research-findings/
Where are the 5 tips to help struggling reader? I found this video too long and wordy.
Hello! Here are the 5 Quick Tips: www.TheParentTeacherBridge.com/readinghelp It takes patience to help your child grow, but it also takes consistency! Best wishes!